We are certainly living through difficult times today with COVID-19, severe hurricanes, rampaging fires and devastating earthquakes. A look back in history can provide guidance for us today.
Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) was a German Lutheran pastor. In 1636, amid the darkness of a terrible plague and the horror of the Thirty Years’ War, Rinkart buried over five thousand of his parishioners in one year. That is an average of 15 burials a day!
His parish was ravaged by the plague, by war and by economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of death and despair right outside his window, Martin Rinkart sat down and wrote and sang this table grace for his children:
“Now thank we all our God
With heart and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things had done,
In whom His world rejoices.
Who, from our mother’s arms,
Hath led us on our way
With countless gifts of love
And still is ours today.”
Do these words sound familiar? You have sung them many times at church. They were written by a man enduring one of the worst plagues in history, a man who was burying 15 of his parishioners a day! Yet he sat down and wrote hopeful words and beautiful lyrics to his children that we are still singing 370 years later!
What words of thanksgiving are YOU saying to God and teaching YOUR children and grandchildren today? YOU know the words and melody of Rinkart’s hymn. Sing them today in the midst of COVID-19 and all of the natural disasters around us.
THE BEST WAY TO LOVE GOD IS TO FIND GOD!
It’s FREE! My interview with Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame Player, Andre Dawson on Thursday, September 16th at 7:00 PM CST. Just go to www.foodforthepoor.org/buildingdreams. and make a FREE EVENT RSVP registration. Now as a funeral director, Andre Dawson recently buried 13 people in one week. Please Register today and hear him talk about it.
